“Reaktivny”: Russians likely shot down their own helicopter near Moscow

This is not the first time that Russia has opened fire on its own aircraft.

On the night of April 10, in the city of Naro-Fominsk near Moscow , about 400 km from the Ukrainian border, the Russian military probably accidentally shot down its own helicopter, confusing it with a Ukrainian drone during a drone attack, Defense Express reports.

The publication’s analysts note that this is indicated by a series of videos showing a helicopter circling over the city, while an attempt is being made to shoot it down. Local media reported that the “UAV” was destroyed at around 10:40 p.m. local time, which coincides with the time of the attack by Ukrainian long-range drones on facilities in the Moscow region.

The publication states that due to the low quality of the night footage, it is difficult to accurately determine the type of aircraft, but the rotation of the blades and the characteristic noise indicate that it is a helicopter. This becomes even more obvious in one of the videos, although it is currently impossible to say for sure whether it is a military or civilian aircraft.

“The question may arise – why do helicopter blades glow? And this is not the so-called Kopp-Etchells effect, when helicopter blades begin to glow due to friction with dust or sand, because it is possible to see it only in the desert during landing or takeoff of an aircraft,” writes Defense Express

In this case, we are talking about special contour lights that are installed at the ends of the blades to visually mark the area of the propeller. Another detail: why the Russians opened fire on their own helicopter. It is important that they fired not from air defense systems, but from machine guns and, probably, from anti-aircraft installations of the ZU-23-2 type. This may indicate that the shooting was not conducted by professional anti-aircraft units, but by military personnel directly from the territory of the units.

The fact is that in Naro-Fominsk itself there is a base of the 4th Kantemirov Tank Division, a training center of the Frunze Military Academy, and a corresponding storage base for fuel and lubricants.

“At the same time, given the tracers, everyone was firing at the same time,” the experts emphasize.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that the Russian military has opened fire on its aircraft, mistaking them for Ukrainian drones. For example, on November 26, 2024, a civilian An-2 came under such “friendly” fire near the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery in Bashkortostan. Then the aircraft withstood the attack due to the strength of its structure. That is, it is quite likely that Russia will not officially recognize the incident with the helicopter – or will present it as a “successful destruction of an enemy drone.”

A video taken by the Russians themselves shows an object that looks very much like a helicopter moving through the air, and fire is being fired at it. The authors of the video, commenting on the incident, write that it is some kind of “new type of helicopter-type UAV” and that this “drone” is supposedly “jet-powered.”

(C)UNIAN 2025